The Secret Creek
by PurpleLilyBlossom
Summary: He gave me so much and I wish I could have known then what I know now. I didn’t deserve him I caused him so much pain, right to the very end. His life would have been so different had he not followed me to that clearing.


Once upon a time, long ago…my home was on an island that no longer exists. I say this because if you were to look for it now in this day and age, it simply wouldn't be there. The stretch of land that I had once called my home is currently residing at the bottom of the vast ocean that had once surrounded it.

My life was so very different back then, more commanding, restricting.

I had a reputation to uphold in society and everyone in my kingdom looked to me. I was the youngest daughter of a king, a very powerful ruler.

My father's story is a very tragic one…a haunting tale of love and loss, heartbreak and how his pain turned him into the monster that terrorized his people, slaughtered millions without mercy and ruined the lives of thousands, my life included.

I was always a bit reckless, rebellious, very much in love with nature and the simple things in life. My feisty adventures nature had always caused an uproar in the castle and It was certainly a challenge for the maids to keep up with me.

With my long, pink curls and dark emerald green eyes, those who saw me said I resembled my late mother in many ways.

Going against all the rules I began sneaking out of the castle at age 5.

My heart was too wild to be caged up and the lure of what lie just beyond the castle doors was too intoxicating to ignore.

I hungered for the unknown, for adventure and excitement. I wanted to explore and experience everything the world had to offer. I was always getting dragged back to the castle by my older brother. When he married and was no longer there my maids were the ones who dragged me back inside the castle walls. I was constantly getting into trouble and even had to see my father once or twice. One of the few times he actually wanted to see me.

As if just the site of me was too much for my father to bear.

It was in the forest, miles from the castle when I met him. It was a cruel twist of fate that the two of us were brought together. Two souls that were seemingly perfect for the other. What modern day people call true love, Soul Mates.

I can still remember the day we met. I was 5 yrs old, he was 6. I had just found a beautiful clearing surrounded by thick vines and trees. It had a small pool of water cut off from the rest of the river by huge rocks; it had its own waterfall. The place was breathtaking.

I was admiring the waterfall when he snuck up behind me, scaring me half to death. After I attacked him in a very unlady like fashion for scaring me. He said he had seen me wandering around the forest for several days and he followed me to the clearing.

When he found out who I was, his reaction irritated me. He was mortified that I had wandered out so far away from the castle. He offered to take me back and it was only after I refused to follow that he seemed to get over his shock and stop rambling.

He looked at me with those dark ocean blue eyes and I realized that his eyes were the same color as my fathers. Only instead of hate, emptiness and darkness I found his were much more alive and expressive, his gaze so intense as he stared into my eyes.

I snapped out of it the second a familiar voice floated up to my ears.

Keade one of my maids, the women sounded hysterical and I sighed irritably. She was the closest thing that I had ever known to a mother since my birth mother died 2 days after bringing me into this world.

I loved Keade but in the beginning she really got on my nerves. She was so determined to keep me from running off, to turn me into an obedient slave like my older sister and brother. She should have known in the beginning that her attempts would only make me rebel more.

I ran out again, this time exploring down by the rushing riverbank. Not even thinking about the fact that I couldn't swim. I got too close and fell in.

This is when my hero came to my rescue. The 6 yr old boy with chin length spiky blonde hair and dark blue eyes, the one who nearly scared me to death when we first met.

…Naruto…

He leaped into the foamy water, throwing all caution to the wind. He fought the current and pulled me into his arms then with a herculean strength he swam back to the river bank. To this day I still don't know how he did it or why. When I asked he explained that his father had taught him how to swim, but that didn't answer my question. He could have easily gotten caught in the strong current and drowned. He risked his own life to save me, and I couldn't understand why?

It would take me years to realize that the answer to that question had been right in front of my face the entire time.

We became nearly inseparable after the day he saved my life. He was my best friend, my protector. He once told me that I was a disaster waiting to happen. My reckless impulsive behavior got me into trouble a lot and I was surprised he was able to keep up with me when even my maids had a hard time with it. He was always there when I needed him, always getting us out of the messes I got us into. The thing I really liked about him was the way I felt around him, the way he made me feel.

Like I was the most important person in world, I felt so safe and comfortable when he was near. To him I wasn't just a princess, he treated me like a person, in his eyes I was just Sakura. I was able to be myself around him and it was ok. I could let my hair down. I could pretend, even if just for a few hours, that I was just a normal girl.

He was so strong, I felt almost invincible…like nothing would be able to touch me as long as he was close.

He gave me so much and I wish I could have known then what I know now. I didn't deserve him; I caused him so much pain, right to the very end.

His life would have been so different had he not followed me to that clearing.

I had realized too late that I loved him when unknown to me…he had been in love with me the entire time. Since the moment he saw me when we were young children.

It must have been so painful for him to see me in the arms of another. My romance with Sasuke Uchiha, a boy from the same nearby village, was short lived because of my father. Naruto and Sasuke had been friends since before they learned how to walk. Both there fathers knew eachother and had been really close themselves.

I didn't even consider any of this when I started fawing all over the Uchiha.

While I was with Sasuke I talked about Sasuke non-stop. Telling Naruto every detail, not noticing how much it was killing him to hear it.

When my father caught wind of my relationship with Sasuke and forced me to end it Naruto was there to hold me and comfort me.

I was 13 yrs old when I realized my feelings for Naruto, but I was a princess, and my father had already promised me to another.

I rebelled of course, which only made matters worse. I started sneaking out more frequently to see him. My father was constantly trying to stop me from seeing him but I couldn't, I wouldn't. I refused to let my father ruin another relationship for me and I absolutely refused to marry someone that I had never even met. Someone I didn't love.

If only I could have known that my rebellious actions were setting off a chain of events that would end in tragedy. That would end up hurting the only man I ever loved.

My father couldn't stop me from seeing him, so my father went to the source.

Naruto loved me so much that when my father threatened my life if Naruto didn't fight for him, Naruto did it. My father immediately sent him across the ocean.

I was angry and heartbroken when Naruto told me he was leaving. I made him promise to come back to me and he swore he would before leaving. My hatred for my father grew after that day.

With him gone my father thought it would be easier to go on with my marriage to another man, I rebelled again. It was custom in those days for the lady awaiting to be married to sail across the ocean to meet her fiance. After many failed attempts of trying to force me to get on the boat that would seal my unhappy fate. My finance was forced to sail to me.

I had never realized just how much I loved Naruto, how much I had depended on him, how much I needed him until he wasn't there anymore. That protective cloak Naruto had wrapped around me was no longer there and it hurt more than I could bear. The only hope I had was to wait for him to come back to me.

My father saw this and he lied to me, giving me false news of Naruto's death. Hoping that it would stop me from being so uncooperative with all the marriage plans.

The news nearly killed me, but I still refused to marry.

Naruto finally returned after being gone for nearly 2 years. The horrors he had seen in the heat of battle had taken his innocence, but not dulled his feelings for me.

He found me at the clearing, a place we had lovingly called our "secret place" when we were children. Doing what he had always loved to do…just sit and watch me…completely entranced with the way I moved…

I was so unhappy and upset over the loss of Naruto and what was happening that I had decided to take my own life.

So with tears in my eyes, I lowered myself to my knees in front of the water, and raised a dagger to my chest.

Naruto saw this and immediately raced out of his hiding place and knocked it out of my hands.

He pulled me up to my feet and I screamed in surprise. Only instead of slapping him like I had done so many times in the past. I crumbled to the ground sobbing, thinking I had finally lost my mind, or I was dreaming again.

When he was finally able to convince me that he wasn't a figment of my imagination, I threw myself into his arms sobbing hysterically.

I don't know who started the kiss…It was feverish, frantic, his lips hungrily sliding across mine.

I can't remember who started the kiss, but I can remember him pulling away, can still hear the harsh uneven breaths that escaped his lips, his voice hoarse and shaky as he tried to stop himself.

I didn't want to stop, I wanted more, more of him. So I kept kissing him. He tried again and again to stop. As if he somehow sensed the danger that our forbidden love would put us in should it go any further. The tragedy that was waiting just around the corner. A tragedy that wouldn't have happened had I not been so selfish.

Each attempt to stop failed as I slide my arms around his neck and opened my mouth. Giving him better access and eliciting growls deep in his throat, his control slipping more and more.

Until he finally snapped. What was left of his control evaporated instantly and he deepened the kiss, trailed hot feverish kisses down my jaw line then moved back to my mouth. Kissing me so deeply that it took my breath away. The rough pads of his hands roaming my body as he ravaged me.

He kissed me passionately, feverishly, hungrily…showing me just how badly he needed me…how much he loved me…

We made love that whole afternoon; we just couldn't get enough of each other.

After that day I began to run off every chance I got to be with him. Most of the time it was In the cover of night and I came to him, but there were times when he showed up searching for me. Risking being caught, his blue eyes dark with barely restrained lust. We were like a drug to each other, helplessly addicted and slaves to our own passion.

I was so deliriously happy…so in love…then my father and finance noticed my behavior, and realized Naruto was back.

My jealous finance had him arrested and thrown in the dungeon. My father was furious that Naruto had returned and even more angry when I started visiting him regularly. I just couldn't stay away.

It must have been so painful for him to find out through my haughty finance about my upcoming marriage. I know it was, the pain was etched in his handsome face and shone deeply in his dark blue eyes when I visited him.

My hero, always so protective of me, feared that my father would hurt me and begged me to stop coming down to see him, Naruto knew better than anyone how stubborn I was. So when I continued to show up he should not have been surprised. It didn't stop him from scolding me every time I appeared.

My father accused Naruto of having an inappropriate relationship with me, the sentence….death.

Naruto planned to break out of the dungeon and sail away from the island. When he said he was never coming back I was shattered by the news and selfishly begged that he take me with him.

Fearing I would just follow him anyways and get hurt he relented and said yes…but not before calling me a spoiled brat and hungrily smashing his lips against mine, cursing himself violently between deep passionate kisses for loving me so dammed much.

He broke out that night and we made our way to the coast. Making a fatal mistake by resting until early morning, if we had traveled into the night we may have made it to freedom…sadly…fate had other things in mind.

We had made it to the edge of the forest when my finance found us. He demanded I go back with him. Reminding me that my wedding was 2 days away and that I belonged to him, when I venomously refused he threatened to take me back with force if that's what it took.

That's when my hero stepped in to protect me. He fought my finance and won. When he held his sword, ready to deliver the final blow. I thought of how my father would hunt him down to the ends of the earth…I couldn't bear to think of what would happen if my father caught him so I stopped him.

I should have let him kill the man; it would have saved my love the agony of what my actions ended up causing.

Naruto growled angrily, lowering his sword slowly. He turned to sheath it and I watched in horror as my finance took the opportunity to pull out a dagger and stand.

I screamed as the coward ran at my unsuspecting lover, dagger raised.

Without thinking I ran between my love and the dagger, Naruto turned at that same second and I stifled a cry of pain as the blade ripped through my dress and sunk into my lower back.

My loves blue eyes widening as the realization of what just happened hit him.

* * *

I'm laying in his arms now, arms that are shaking as violent sobs rack his body.

He's in so much pain; I'm the cause of it. He gave me so much, and I gave him nothing but pain.

I never deserved him; his life would have been so much better if he had never met me. Fate played a horrible trick on both of us. Our love was obviously not supposed to be, yet it happened, and now we were being ripped from each other.

He's whispering to me…his voice choked with pain…begging me not to leave him…telling me how much he loved me…asking me why I did what I did...

….It's an easy question to answer….

"Because I love you…"

This answer only makes him sob harder.

"I…can't…live with you…" He chokes out between broken sobs

My vision begins to blur, my life soaking the ground around us as it leaks out. He must have seen it because he got desperate. Clutching onto me tighter, as if by sheer force he could keep me in this world with him. His sobs so broken and heart wrenching, I wondered if perhaps he was in more pain than I was.

I'm slipping away and he's getting more panicked. I try to keep my eyes focused on his handsome face but he's fading from my vision. The last thing I hear before the darkness swallows me completely is a choked scream…then nothing…

* * *

Naruto let out a tortured scream…burying his face in her silky pink curls, his tears soaking the pink tresses, muffling deep painful sobs, his arms tightening around her limp lifeless body.

After what could have been 20 minutes or 5 hours…the man finally raised his head, her blood staining his hands and clothes. He spotted his long steel sword lying discarded several feet away and forced himself to release his hold on her.

He crawled over to the sword, wrapped shaky fingers around the hilt and crawled back over to her.

Tears blurred his vision as he raised the heavy steel, the tip of the blade touching the breast right above his heart. He took one last glance down at the body of his love…then shoved the blade through the skin….the sickening sound of bones cracking reached his ears as the blade ripped through his rip cage…the blade puncturing his heart almost immediately.

His body jerked violently before falling limply beside her.

* * *

**_A.N:_**

**_This is a story that I have been working on since I was a little girl. I've been trying to write it for a long time but there is simply too much story to write out. _**

**_Think of all those great romances...Romeo & Juliet, Tristan & Isolde, Lancelot &Guinevere...now just imagine if all those romance tales were based on events that actually happened. An even older tale of two lovers whose story was lost in the sea of time...that's where this story comes in...of course this is just fiction..._**

**_So, what I did was borrow some of the characters from Naruto, and I wrote out a summary like version of my story. Combining the two and ...TADA!! _**

**_lol!! _**

**_... Here it is..._**

**_This is just a one-shot but I want your opinions! Let me know what you think!! _**

_-I revised this slightly, tried to add a bit more detail to it. For those of you who may be a little confused by this…because there is simply too much story to write out to turn this into a multi-chapter story. I wrote it out as if Sakura was remembering and telling the story. Most of it is from her point of view-_


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